Our people
The Faculty of Management, Law & Social Sciences employs more than 75 academic staff and nearly the same number of administrative staff to teach and administer its portfolio of undergradaute, Master's, MBA, and doctoral programmes.
Faculty Management Committee
Professor Zahir Irani
Dean of the Faculty of Management, Law & Social Sciences
Professor Zahir Irani joined the University of Bradford as Dean of the Faculty of Management and Law in December 2016.
Professor Irani has held several senior management positions at Brunel University London, the most recent of which being the Dean of College (Business, Arts and Social Sciences - CBASS) which he set up following an organisational restructuring from eight schools into three colleges.
Prior to this role, he was seconded full-time to Whitehall, where he was a Senior Policy Advisor at the Cabinet Office during part of the coalition Government.
He is however most proud of being Head of the Brunel Business School, which in 2013 was awarded the Times Higher Education Business School of the Year under his leadership.
He completed a BEng (Hons) at Salford University before then accepting a research position in industry where he finished his Master’s degree by research.
He has a PhD in the area of investment evaluation and undertook his leadership development at the Harvard Business School.
He has an extensive list of 3 and 4 star publications in the area of information systems, management decision making, eGovernment and more recently food security within a circular economy. He has significant grant income from national and international funding councils such as EPSRC, ESRC, EU (FP7, H20202, Marie Curie), Qatar Foundation (QNRF). Professor Irani has a sector leading H-index.
View full profile of Professor Zahir Irani »
Contact details
Email: z.irani@bradford.ac.ukPA: Ms Sabina Adam
Email: s.adam3@bradford.ac.ukTel: 01274 234371
Professor Amir Sharif
Associate Dean (International) and Professor of Circular Economy
Chris Kaushal-Bolland
Head of Operations
Chris joined the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences as the Head of Faculty Operations in August 2017 after completing assignments within Professional Services functions across the University as a Change Manager and Programme Manager respectively.
As the Head of Operations, Chris is a member of the faculty executive team and works strategically to support the strategic direction and development of the faculty. He leads faculty operations and a dynamic administrative team to shape and deliver an effective, flexible and responsive service to support positive shifts in organisational culture and transformational change.
Prior to joining higher education, Chris worked extensively across the National Health Service at local and national level and brought about transformational change and embraced the use of technology to improve patient care and positive outcomes.
In parallel with his professional career, Chris is an Executive MBA alumnus of the University of Bradford and continues to be research active by undertaking the DBA doctoral programme with a portfolio including organisational culture, change management and ethical transformational leadership.
Professor Vishanth Weerakkody
Head of the School of Management and Professor in Management Information Systems and Governance
Professor Vishanth Weerakkody joined the School of Management at University of Bradford in March 2017 as Professor in Management Information Systems and Governance.
He was previously a Professor of Digital Governance at the Business School in Brunel University, London where he held several leadership roles.
Prior to his academic career, Prof Weerakkody worked in a number of multinational organisations, including IBM UK.
He has a successful track record of Research and Enterprise and has secured numerous research grants from funding bodies such as the European Commission (FP7 & H2020), Economic and Social Research Council, Qatar Foundation and UK Local Government.
His R&D expertise spans several disciplines including, management decision making, ICT evaluation, public administration, social Innovation and process transformation.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Electronic Government Research and a Handling Editor for Information Systems Frontiers. He is a Chartered IT Professional and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.
Patrick Ryan
Head of the School of Social Sciences
Lorraine Lucas
Head of Business Engagement and Corporate Programmes
Lorraine joined the University of Bradford, School of Management in 2000. She initially set up and led the delivery of careers and alumni services within the school; this then led to a focus on employability and business engagement in terms of student facing activities.
In 2013 her portfolio expanded to include Executive Education, Corporate Programmes and the Knowledge Transfer Network within the school. Lorraine leads on business engagement within the school.
Lorraine graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a degree in Geography; she then spent 15 years in retail working for Selfridges, Burton Group, GUS and Storehouse. She then moved into Higher Education and worked for Universities of Bristol and Huddersfield before joining University of Bradford, School of Management, from where she graduated with an MBA in 1983.
International Advisory Board
Jabbar Sardar
Chair - International Advisory Board; HR Director - BBC Studios
Jabbar Sardar is HR Director for BBC Studios. Having joined in January 2016, he oversees all HR activity for production and reports to BBC group HR director Valerie Hughes D’Aeth, For the past four years Jabbar has been nominated one of the most influential HR directors in the UK by HR Magazine.
Prior to joining the BBC, Jabbar was Director of HR & OD at Cafcass between 2006 to 2015. Before Cafcass, Jabbar was a senior HR professional within a number of large public sector organisations.
Professor Zahir Irani
Executive Dean of the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences
Professor Zahir Irani joined the University of Bradford as Dean of the Faculty of Management and Law in December 2016.
Professor Irani has held several senior management positions at Brunel University London, the most recent of which being the Dean of College (Business, Arts and Social Sciences - CBASS) which he set up following an organisational restructuring from eight schools into three colleges.
Prior to this role, he was seconded full-time to Whitehall, where he was a Senior Policy Advisor at the Cabinet Office during part of the coalition Government.
He is however most proud of being Head of the Brunel Business School, which in 2013 was awarded the Times Higher Education Business School of the Year under his leadership.
He completed a BEng (Hons) at Salford University before then accepting a research position in industry where he finished his Master’s degree by research.
He has a PhD in the area of investment evaluation and undertook his leadership development at the Harvard Business School.
He has an extensive list of 3 and 4 star publications in the area of information systems, management decision making, eGovernment and more recently food security within a circular economy. He has significant grant income from national and international funding councils such as EPSRC, ESRC, EU (FP7, H20202, Marie Curie), Qatar Foundation (QNRF). Professor Irani has a sector leading H-index.
Dr Cordula Barzantny
Professor of Human Resource Management - Toulouse Business School
Dr Cordula Barzantny is Professor of Human Resource Management with a particular focus on International and Intercultural Management at Toulouse Business School. She is also strongly involved in AeroSpace business and management education development.
Cordula has conceived various AeroSpace Management degree programmes (MBA, MiM…) and launched the first AeroSpace MBA Programme for Toulouse Business School in 1999-2000. She has also developed several international academic and corporate partnerships for TBS, particularly in the high-tech industry and the aerospace sector, recently with IIM Bangalore as well as with Air France Industries for Executive Education.
Her main research interests are in cross-cultural management and leadership, multi-cultural teams and workgroup diversity, culture change and corporate control. With these topics, she is a regular facilitator for Executive Development Programmes and works on various consulting, coaching and training assignments with corporations such as Airbus Group (formerly EADS), Thales Alenia Space, Alcatel Space, British Aerospace, EADS, ICL Europe, Paribas, Siemens, Sigfox and others. Cordula was for more than 10 years Visiting Professor at Arizona State University and continues to be invited by international university programmes around the world.
Christophe Germain
Dean of Shenzhen Audencia Business School
Christophe Germain is currently Dean of Shenzhen Audencia Business School and Vice-Dean of Audencia Business School in charge of offshore programs. Previously he served as Acting Dean (2016) and Associate Dean for the faculty (2007-2015) at Audencia Business School.
His research and teaching experience is in Accounting and Finance and his most recent research explores the economic model of European Football clubs. He earned his PhD from Bordeaux University for his research on performance management systems. He is a member of the Centre for Financial Risk Management at Audencia Business School.
Since September 2016 he has served on the Academic Board of the Football Business Academy (Geneva – Switzerland) and, since September 2017, on the International Advisory Board of the Faculty of Business Administration at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Chengdu – China).
Ravi Dixit
Advertising Research Manager - Google Inc
With a career spanning 22 years in media that reflects continual advancement in roles and responsibilities. Ravi’s current role as Advertising Research Manager for Google Inc in New York involves heading up research for key clients of Google Inc.
Ravi was previously the Head of Market Insights Google India, involved in developing digital measurement solutions for digital and cross media advertising effectiveness. Prior to that he was Head of Research & Product Planning – Youth Channels, for Disney India, which entailed periodic brand tracks for Bindass and Disney channels, content testing for original productions for the Youth and Kids network, as well as studies to determine trends amongst Kids and Youth and consumer insights for the South Asian community in UK for a Hindi Movie Channel. As Director Product Planning for youth channels Ravi planned short and long term strategy of two youth channels including the programming grid, channel distribution and channel strategy.
Past experiences as Director of Research for a pan-Indian overnight TV ratings service gave insights into media measurement and media consumers. The years as a full time faculty at MICA and a long stint with The Times of India equipped him to understand the industry drivers and pain points of the traditional media industry.
Paula Vennells
Group Chief Executive - Post Office Ltd
Paula Vennells is Group Chief Executive of the Post Office. Joining in 2007, appointed Managing Director in 2010 and Chief Executive in 2012, she led its separation from Royal Mail Group in 2012 to establish an independent retail network of 11,600 branches, the largest in Europe.
Previously Paula spent five years with Whitbread. She began her career with Unilever and L’Oreal and held directorships in sales and marketing with a number of major retailers including Argos where she was instrumental in creating one of the UK’s first profitable e-commerce businesses.
Paula is currently a Non-Executive Director of Morrisons Plc. She is Chairman of First Rate Exchange Services Ltd., a Trustee of Hymns Ancient and Modern and a Governor of Bedford School.
Paula holds a BA (Hons) in Russian, French and Economics from the University of Bradford and a Diploma in Theology from Oxford University. She is an ordained minister within the Church of England. Paula is married to John and they have two sons.
Dr Philip A Dervan
Vice President - SAP Global Design
Phil Dervan is a vice president within the SAP Global Design team, responsible for UX outbound Product Management and Partner Management. In this role, Phil is responsible for developing and executing programs that leverage the Partner ecosystem to drive SAP market share gains, accelerate customer success and expand ecosystem readiness.
An 18 year experienced veteran at SAP, Phil has held leadership roles in Pre-Sales, Global Sales Operations, Business Development and Solution Management. In 2002, Phil relocated to the USA from his native England in 2002, and lives in the Boston area with his wife and 3 daughters.
Prior to SAP, Phil has more than 15 years of expertise in various line of business roles, as well as in divisional General Management roles at Pirelli in Europe.
Phil holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of Southampton in the UK.
Stephen A Greyser
Richard P Chapman Professor (Marketing/Communications) Emeritus - Harvard Business School
Stephen A Greyser is Richard P Chapman Professor (Marketing/Communications) Emeritus, of the Harvard Business School, where he specialises in brand marketing, advertising, corporate communications, the business of sports, and nonprofit management.
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, he has been active in research and teaching at HBS since 1958. He was also an editor at the Harvard Business Review and later its Editorial Board Secretary and Board Chairman. He is responsible for 16 books, numerous journal articles, several special editions of journals, and over 300 published HBS case studies.
At HBS, he developed the Corporate Communications elective, creating over 40 cases and articles on issues management, corporate sponsorship, relations among business-media-publics, etc. His current research (co-authored) and most recent published articles are on the branding and identity of the Nobel Prize, including “The Identity of a Heritage Brand” (2015) and integrating the Nobel Prize’s identity and reputation (2016).
He created and teaches Harvard’s Business of Sports course, is a member of the University’s Faculty Standing Committee on Athletics, has served on the Selection Committee for the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, is on the board of The Sports Museum, and has authored numerous Business of Sports cases and articles.
Professor Shirley Congdon
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) - University of Bradford
Professor Congdon's portfolio carries responsibility for the strategic development and oversight of the standard and quality of learning and teaching and the student experience.
She is passionate about the student experience and committed to creating excellence in learning and teaching. She believes that the cultivation of an environment in which students and staff are supported to be outstanding and creative will enhance student success.
Professor Congdon's professional and academic expertise lies within the area of health and social care service modernisation & cultural change, research methods and evidence-based practice. She has worked within the field of higher education for 22 years during which time she has held a number of senior posts in a number of Higher Education Institutes.
Roles and memberships
Stakeholder Governor of the Board of Bradford District Care Trust (shadow format)
Governor of Leeds College of Art
Member of the Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber, representing the regions Higher Education Institutes
Member of The Council of Deans for the UK
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Ref. 31372
Member of the Royal College of Nursing
Member of NHS Yorkshire and Humber Regional Leadership Council.
Qualifications
Professor Congdon has two current recorded qualifications with Nursing and Midwifery Council. PIN: 79J3221E.
Professor Amir Sharif
Associate Dean (International) and Professor of Circular Economy
Amir joined the University in his new role as Associate Dean (International) in August 2017 coming from Brunel University London, where he was Professor of Operations Management and the Founding Director of the Operations and Supply Chain Systems (OASIS) research group within Brunel Business School.
Leadership and management roles
He was also an appointed member of the Institute of Energy Futures at Brunel University London and a past member of Senate. Amir has previously held a number of senior leadership and management roles within Brunel Business School, including as Head of School and also has been Assistant Head, Acting Director of the Doctoral Programme, Director of MBA Programmes, and Director of Teaching and Learning.
Prior to his academic career, Amir worked extensively within the Financial Services and Professional Services sector, working for and consulting with many of the world’s leading multinational corporations, including JPMorgan, UBS Investment Bank, KPMG Consulting, BAE Systems, Sony, and the BBC. He brings a wealth of experience in terms of both internationalisation of programmes and overseas global partnerships (predominantly across MENA, GCC and South Asia) – and has successfully lead, directed and contributed to key accreditations including AACSB and AMBA. Amir also has experience in gaining programme recognition and accreditations from a number of leading UK chartered bodies and PSRBs for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Research
In parallel with his industry experiences, Amir remained and continues to be research-active and continues to be an active member on grant funding bodies. He has been re-elected in successive years to be a member of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Peer Review College, whilst also having provided his expertise to a number of other leading national and international research funding bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), European Commission (EU), the British Academy, the British Council, the Czech Research Foundation (CRF), the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), the Natural and National Science Foundation of China (NNSFC), and the Qatar National Research Foundation (QNRF).
His key teaching and research interests cross a diverse mix of topics including Operations and Supply Chain Management, Information Systems, Knowledge Management and Leadership Decision-Making and Operations Research. These are across a range of sectors such as manufacturing, FMCG, central and local government, humanitarian logistics, financial services, and more recently, food security / waste, the food-energy-water nexus and the circular economy. He has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals and has been recognised for his academic contributions from publishers and societies alike.
Amir’s research was identified in 2014 by the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) sub-panel for Business and Management as of “outstanding international reputation and impact” for research conducted with the UK government’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in applying “soft” operations research modelling techniques in order to evaluate the impact of European Union farming subsidies on the UK agribusiness sector and the resulting effect on UK climate change policy.
Press and media
He continues to be active in the popular press and media, contributing and being quoted in articles in newspapers such as the Financial Times, The Times (of London), The Independent, WIRED (UK edition), as well as being an ad-hoc columnist for University Business magazine. Amir is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA), the Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport (FCILT), the Institute of Leadership and Management (FInstLM) and a Member of the Chartered Management Institute (MCMI).
Professor Vishanth Weerakkody
Head of the School of Management and Professor in Management Information Systems and Governance
Professor Vishanth Weerakkody joined the School of Management at University of Bradford in March 2017 as Professor in Management Information Systems and Governance.
He was previously a Professor of Digital Governance at the Business School in Brunel University, London where he held several leadership roles.
Prior to his academic career, Prof Weerakkody worked in a number of multinational organisations, including IBM UK.
He has a successful track record of Research and Enterprise and has secured numerous research grants from funding bodies such as the European Commission (FP7 & H2020), Economic and Social Research Council, Qatar Foundation and UK Local Government.
His R&D expertise spans several disciplines including, management decision making, ICT evaluation, public administration, social Innovation and process transformation.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Electronic Government Research and a Handling Editor for Information Systems Frontiers. He is a Chartered IT Professional and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.
Lorraine Lucas
Head of Business Engagement and Corporate Programmes
Lorraine joined the University of Bradford, School of Management in 2000. She initially set up and led the delivery of careers and alumni services within the school; this then led to a focus on employability and business engagement in terms of student facing activities.
In 2013 her portfolio expanded to include Executive Education, Corporate Programmes and the Knowledge Transfer Network within the school. Lorraine leads on business engagement within the school.
Lorraine graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a degree in Geography; she then spent 15 years in retail working for Selfridges, Burton Group, GUS and Storehouse. She then moved into Higher Education and worked for Universities of Bristol and Huddersfield before joining University of Bradford, School of Management, from where she graduated with an MBA in 1983.
Chris Kaushal-Bolland
Head of Operations
Chris joined the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences as the Head of Faculty Operations in August 2017 after completing assignments within Professional Services functions across the University as a Change Manager and Programme Manager respectively.
As the Head of Operations, Chris is a member of the faculty executive team and works strategically to support the strategic direction and development of the faculty. He leads faculty operations and a dynamic administrative team to shape and deliver an effective, flexible and responsive service to support positive shifts in organisational culture and transformational change.
Prior to joining higher education, Chris worked extensively across the National Health Service at local and national level and brought about transformational change and embraced the use of technology to improve patient care and positive outcomes.
In parallel with his professional career, Chris is an Executive MBA alumnus of the University of Bradford and continues to be research active by undertaking the DBA doctoral programme with a portfolio including organisational culture, change management and ethical transformational leadership.
Entrepreneurs in residence
Tony Fish
Entrepreneur in residence
Tony Fish B-Eng, MBA, CEng, FIET, FBCS, FCIM, FRSA is a seasoned executive board director with over 25 years of experience in innovation and high growth. He has founded, co-founded, sold and listed businesses but remains passionate about highly disruptive technology which has the capability of scaling fast and is at an early stage.
He brings professional working knowledge and experience of raising funding as a founder and advisor, funding and scaling growth companies as a partner and general partner of funds, and representing corporates in M&A transactions.
Whilst his style is based on deep involvement, clear decision making, robust financials, fast iteration, trust, transparency and strong open governance controls; he brings innovation, entrepreneurship, energy, enthusiasm and transformation skills.
Tony is one of the youngest MBA students to be awarded an MBA from Bradford back in 1993 at 26.
Martin Allison
Entrepreneur in residence
Martin Allison FCIB, FCIBS, MBA, F.Inst.SMM, F.Inst.AM, FRSA, MIoD, QFP is regarded as an energetic leader and consistent high performer with proven track record of achieving extraordinary results by creating world class teams. He is a transformational change professional offering excellent sales and risk management capabilities.
Martin believes you can learn as much from challenges and mistakes as from times when things have been great. Learning from others he also considers essential in an individual’s career journey. Martin uses his strategic insights and extensive network to understand markets and translate opportunities into tangible business producing double digit profitability growth even in mature markets.
His inspirational and authentic style of leadership accompanied by first class communication skills has resulted in organisations he has been associated becoming regarded as innovative and credible competitors in their sectors. Currently Martin is the NED Chair of Chameleon Technology UL Ltd, Cimlogic Ltd, Synthotech Ltd. Martin is a qualified banker and franchising & licensing professional, investor in various sales enablement and business coaching concepts, for example, The Alternative Board, Rosedale Coaching, Quota Sales Limited, Sinclair Training and SalesLevers.com.
Martin was previously the Dean of Leeds Business & Law and opened £50 Million Rose Bowl complex. Ex Head of International Banking Division and Corporate and Commercial Banking teams across the UK in RBS/NW Group as well as ex-Chairman of various civic organisations including Leeds Junior Chamber, British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association, Leeds Community Foundation.